Tomas Masiulis and Zalgiris schooled Hapoel Tel Aviv plain and simple. From top to bottom, from right to left and from up to down, the Lithuanian squad came into Yad Eliyahu and were not going to help celebrate the Reds play their first ever Euroleague game on their home court. They were coming in to crash the party or more like party-poopers as Dimitrios Itoudis and his reds had no answers as to how Zalgiris, out-defended, out-rebounded, out-worked and perhaps most importantly, out-hustled the hosts the final 32 minutes of the contest.

Sure Hapoel looked to be on their way to another comfortable victory when they were up by a dozen points, 25-13 with 1:44 left in the opening frame. But from that point on when Chris Jones went from deep and the party was about to begin, Zalgiris started to claw their way back with an Ignas Brazdeikis 3-pointer and a pair of Sylvain Francisco free throws to close out the first quarter down 25-18 as they went on to outscore the Reds 80-55. Yes, you read right, for a tad over 3 full quarters Masiulis’s team were a +25 points better than Hapoel.

Game. Set. Match.

Zalgiris with their trio of guards in Nigel Williams-Goss, Maodo Lo and the maligned Sylvain Francisco to go along with a front court of Moses Wright, Azuolis Zubelis, Dustin Sleva and Ignas Brazdeikis took 19 more rebounds than Hapoel, 40-21 and grabbed 11 boards off the offensive glass. But it wasn’t just the battle of the boards which was an absolute knockout, it was the fact that Zalgiris caused Hapoel’s shooters all kinds of issues with their size.

What may have been open looks against Hapoel Holon this past Saturday were not going to be versus the Lithuanians.

Each defender had a height advantage over their counterparts in Red (who were supposed to play their first game back in black but due to fan pressure changed their minds ahead of tip-off). Yam Madar and Collin Malcolm went an abysmal 3/14 combined, Antonio Blakeney went a brutal 1/6 from beyond the 3-point arc and Elijah Bryant, who was a marked man from the get go and was only able to get off a pair from deep.

When your stealth shooters continuously have a hand in their face and are being pushed around, it’s not going to make a for a pleasant evening for any team.

The 50-year old Masiulis who is in the midst of his debut season as a head coach in the Euroleaague has been around the block for quite some time. The Lithuanian and former Zalgiris power forward is coming off a continental championship as an assistant with Fenerbahce just last season and had also bided his time with Barcelona and Zalgiris as assistants before taking up the mantle himself.

There is no question that Masiulis has seen a thing or two over the course of his career. He had some up close and personal time watching Elijah Bryant who plied his trade last season for EFS while the bench boss was at Fenerbahce and he knew what needed to be done in order to stop the NBA Champ and made sure his charges were up to the task to take care of business.

“We knew how important Bryant is for his team and how good a player he is,” Masiulis said. “Last year, we coached and played against him in Athens. It was a very big focus and he’s also a very good defender. I think we had to play good defense on him as I didn’t want him to feel confident.”

Bryant responded to what the Zalgiris game plan had been following the loss in what was a very quiet Hapoel lockerroom, “Yeah, I think they had a good defensive plan. Obviously, he’s coached at Fener, so they had a good defensive plan. They were the better team and I think it’s not just about me, it’s about the team. I think we were out-hustled, out-rebounded 40 to 20. So you win some, you lose some, but you’ve got to learn from it and get better.”

Blakeney, who had trouble from downtown didn’t want to credit the opponents for stopping him, “I don’t think it had anything to do with them. It’s more about us. We didn’t guard well, so we couldn’t get out in transition. We played a lot of half-court basketball, they switched, and we got a little stagnant. As for the rebounding they really dominated the boards and I think that’s part of their DNA. They go to the offensive glass and we knew that coming in. We knew they had hustling players and we didn’t match it. We were supposed to match it.”

Itoudis was displeased to say the least after what was one of the club’s worst performances of the season. He pushed the fact that his club had missed a lot of good opportunities and a lot of good shots and in the past they had come back from big deficits because they were switching and picking up which in this game was not the case.

However, a team like Hapoel doesn’t have a bad shooting day unless they are forced into it and it was the size that really made them most uncomfortable. It takes two to tango and Itoudis agreed with that.

“Well, yeah, you know, that’s both. It’s a combination of both. You’re right. Both. Because today we had only five turnovers, which is one of the fewest turnovers we have had in general. But they had eleven [offensive] boards, so it’s eight more [11-3 in favor of Zalgiris]. Those are eight more possessions and they capitalized a lot because they were shooting amazing from beyond the arc. 8/15 is a very good percentage. But it’s both.

Sometimes you lose something when you lack size and this is the players. I cannot stretch the players and make them bigger. But they have heart and desire and we’re working on that, on the mismatches, how to help the mismatches. We did that. It’s not the first time we’re facing that.”

Other teams will no doubt use the Zalgiris win as a case study as to how to beat Hapoel and in turn the Reds will have to figure out to make up for some of their disadvantages so as Bryant always says, they will learn. It’s just another day at school.

However, all in all a 13-6 record and second place overall in their first ever Euroleague season after the first round of games is impressive and certainly nothing to sneeze at as they will use that as a springboard for the second round which gets underway next week when Dubai comes to town.

“I think at the end of the day, our first round was great. We can’t let this one game summarize our whole first round. Our first round went well,” Blakeney exclaimed.

It did go well and now they need to make sure there are no hiccups along the way because the Euroleague standings are tight, with 3 wins separating places 1 through 10. Hapoel has to make sure they are in the playoffs or else they won’t be back in the Euroleague next season and as good as the first round was, Itoudis will need to make sure that the Reds will be there after game number 38.

It’s really not just trying to win the Euroleague but in essence survive to live another day.